Blog of the Good Counsel Network, a Catholic pro-life group dedicated to fighting abortion through serving those in crisis pregnancies in the way in which Mary served Christ during His earthly life. This blog gives our advisors, fundraisers, office staff and volunteers a place to tell you about our daily battles in the service of Jesus, Mary and Life.

Our Lady of the Wayside

Protect Expectant Mothers and Their Babies

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Friday, 30 April 2010

Recently I became aware of the terrible fire at an animal breeding centre in Okehampton, Devon a couple of weeks ago, which tragically killed over 1,000 pets, mainly guinea pigs. There was a massive out-crying of sadness particularly in the local area, which I could empathise with.

Last year some of the major papers ran a story with full double page computer generated pictures of unborn animals (see the 'unborn elephant' shown above), calling for greater rights for animals in the womb of their parents.

There is only one question which springs to mind when I hear of stories like this. Yes, it's terrible that more than 1,000 pets died in a fire which may even have been an arson attack, and maybe animals should be protected in the womb, that is not for me to judge, BUT WHY can people not see the bigger picture? Why can they not see that in England and Wales more than 700 little unborn children are massacred every day (even Sundays) of the year?

Organisations such as the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), according to their own website, have over 1,000,000 members and for 2007 had £78.6 million to spend. Why do these people and people like them who care so strongly about the life of birds and animals not see what is going on in private Abortuaries and Public Hospitals with our taxes?

The Unborn lives of this country need to be protected much more so than any other creatures. We know that we have the supportof Almighty God, as our Lord says in Matthew 6:26 “

"Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they?"

So let us trust in Him and continue to ask for His strength in our continual battle for Life.

Thursday, 29 April 2010

‘Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sew or reap or gather into barns: Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?’ Matthew 6:26.

How many of us have to literally put these words into practice? How many of us are so destitute that we have to put total trust in our Creator to provide for our most basic needs - a roof over our heads and some food to eat.

One of the many reasons I admire the women I see is that in order to allow their babies to live they have to take a giant leap of faith. Faith that God will provide, through us. Faith that our benefactors will give us the financial support to enable that to happen.

'No one is really poor in this country. They can get housing, benefits etc' I hear some of you say.

Any professional person who works with young families will tell you that those who truly survive on benefits find it very difficult to do so. It only needs a broken washing machine, children who need new shoes, a family funeral to plunge that family into financial crisis often further exacerbated if they borrow from loan sharks charging high levels of interest. The hardship these people endure was vividly illustrated on television recently when some MPs tried to live on income support levels for a week or so and failed miserably.

But those who qualify for benefits at least get the minimum to survive.

Many of the women who approach us for help do not have any access to public funds and they are literally destitute. They have no money, no home, NOTHING.

Do I hear you say, ‘Why are they having babies then?’ ?

It takes a male, a female and God to create a baby! It shocks me that so many of the women we see have been abandoned by the baby’s father - usually after he has first tried to force the woman to have an abortion. The baby is generally conceived due to failed contraception and within a relationship where the woman thinks the man is committed. The women are very hurt, shocked and traumatised when they approach us for help. Most of these relationships have been going on from several months to three years, or even five years.

The women quickly find themselves alone. Their friends and the professionals they approach encourage abortion, offer no help and abandon them as irresponsible for not availing of what they see as a perfect solution. Several women have told me how shocked they were to be offered abortion immediately when they informed their GP that they were pregnant. They are disowned by their families and communities who see the pregnancy as a disgrace even in these liberal times. These same families and communities including sadly some religious communities would much prefer that they murder the baby, a hidden crime which won’t affect them so they can hold their head high, while the unfortunate woman has to deal alone with all the trauma and damage that killing her own baby will cause her in the future. These women are often castigated within our society.

Of course it would be best if they were married, to men who respected, valued, and loved them and who treated them not as sex objects to be discarded like rubbish when the time comes for sacrifice and commitment but as equal and valued partners within marriage.

Admire these brave women, and while you do so, contemplate on our society where life is not valued and where our young men are depriving themselves of the most precious gift of their own son or daughter.

Where is all this going to end and is there anything we can do to stop the tide of abortion?

Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Great Apostle and son of Our Lady, St. Louis de Montfort, your only desire was to set aflame the world with the love of Jesus through Mary. We implore you to obtain for us a perfect and constant devotion to Mary that we may participate in the faith, hope, and charity of Our Lady and that we may receive the favor we ask of you in this novena....(mention your petition).

As an organisation consecrated to Jesus through Our Blessed Lady, we have learned to the inestimable value of the Total Consecration to Mary which was promoted by St Louis Marie de Montfort, whose Feast Day is today. St Louis Marie de Montfort is credited with evangelising the Vendee and preparing the people there for the persecutions that would come to their descendants a century later.

Many of our staff, volunteers and supporters count the making of the Act of Total Consecration to Mary as a turning point in their lives. So we are giving you some links to websites where you can find the Act of Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary if you would like to make it.

He drew up a period of preparation to help souls prepare for making this consecration. You can find all the readings and prayers for each of the 33 days of Preparation here:

Tuesday, 27 April 2010

Several of our volunteers and staff frequently atttend peaceful, prayerful vigils outside abortuaries. Here is the story of one of them.

Last year, on a very cold, still day in winter, we were holding a vigil outside Bedford Square. A boyfriend and girlfriend came out of the clinic. ‘Come on, don’t go looking at those…dolls. Let’s get going!’ said the Irish boyfriend, as he tugged his girlfriend’s sleeve. She shrugged his tugging hand off, and turned to focus on the baby models that are arranged in a display on the ground outside the Abortuary. Mgr. Reilly (Founder of the Helper's of God's Precious Infants) instructed us to put the models on the ground, because as he knows from decades of experience as a counsellor outside the abortuaries, ‘the mothers going into an abortion clinic keep their eyes fixed on the ground. They always look down.’ That day, the pregnant lady stared at the models, even though the boyfriend grunted and stomped away.I went over to her.‘How are you?’ and I made eye-contact with the Mum. ‘Do you know how many weeks you are?’ I asked. She didn’t respond directly, but I picked up a model of an eight-week-old foetus, just as the pregnant mother said, ‘I’m eight weeks, I know from the scan that I had today.’ ‘Did you see the scan?’ I asked, as she studied the model intently.‘No. They didn’t show it to me…’ I handed her the baby model. ‘OK. Well now you know what your baby looks like.’‘Wow! I never thought…he would look so much like…a baby. He’s got everything.’ ‘That’s absolutely right. At eight weeks they are really beautiful. Oh sorry, I forgot to say congratulations.’ At the mention of the word ‘congratulations’, her face fell and tears appeared at the sides of her eyes.When I get talking to a pregnant mother outside an Abortuary, it’s when I say ‘congratulations’, that they usually ‘open up’ and tell me the reason that they are there, at the gates of hell. She told me her that name was Kate; she was 23 and was in a relationship with a Catholic boy from Ireland. ‘He’s a plastic Paddy’ she said, ‘very nice when he wants me to go to a place like this. He says that women who have unplanned pregnancies should just come here. But like you can see, he scarpers when I get to look at something…you know…real.’ she said, and peered at the baby model.We talked in further detail about her baby, and that she wanted to call the baby Kiara. She told me that her mother had offered to look after the baby while she finished her university education,but that her mum still said ‘it’s your choice.’ ‘We’ve only been going out two months’ she gestured at the Abortuary. ‘And the situation that we’re in…I can’t bring a child up in it…I never intended to have a child with him.’In order to rectify this mother’s despair at how she would rear a child in her circumstances, I needed to emphasise the positive, and empower the pregnant mother. I invited her to look beyond her boyfriend’s issues, and the confusion she felt at the time. We concentrated on how much she loved kids, how much a support her family were, and how she was secure financially. I asked her some questions about the Irish boyfriend; did his parents know she was pregnant? ‘Oh no, his parents go to church a bit. He won’t tell them about planning an abortion…because they’d be against it.’ We discussed the health complications of the abortion pills that they had offered her in the clinic. She did tell me that she was definitely not going to have it done that day, and if she waited another week, she would be too late to have the abortion pills. ‘No. No. I’m not going to go for the pills. And I had decided never to have the surgery.’She took my number, and said that she would ring me. My mistake was that I didn’t ask for her number, we had been talking for three quarters of an hour, and if I had taken her number, then I would have been able to call her later. Kate never did call me, but I do hope and pray that one day she will make contact and let us know the outcome. If she did not go ahead with the abortion, than she is still pregnant, and may come to us for help when the baby is born.

Monday, 26 April 2010

Please join our National Day of Prayer and Fasting for the end of abortion tomorrow, Tuesday 27th April - the 42nd Anniversary of "legal" abortions being performed in England and Wales. See our website for more details, http://www.goodcounselnetwork.com/.

What a wonderful Mother we have! Mary, our heavenly Mother who helps us to interpret the signs which her spouse, the Holy Spirit, places along the path of our life, so Pope John Paul II told us. It is an honour for me to open the Good Counsel Network blog on this Marian Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel.On this Feast, when all hope of ending abortion in the UK seems lost, we invite you to HOPE! Every day we speak to women who are considering or even planning to abort an “unplanned” or even (so-called) “unwanted” baby. We invite, pray for, dare and even tempt them to HOPE that there is a place for their baby in their life. Believing as we do that the vocation (i.e. the meaning of her life) of a pregnant woman is to be a Mother, we also believe that God will provide what she needs to fulfil this mission. We believe that, ultimately, fulfilling this mission will bring her true joy and peace. We also know that God has called those of us who are involved in the work of The Good Counsel Network to be one route for women in crisis to find real practical help, friendship and moral support.Forty two years ago, when Catholics here celebrated this Marian Feast, 26th April 1968, they were doing so for the last time in a country where abortions could not legally take place. From 27th April that year, the 1967 Abortion Act came into force and abortions started to be performed “legally” (if one can ever say “legal” about anything so opposed to God’s law and all that is just).42 years of political campaigning and caring support of pregnant women as well as of those who have suffered an abortion followed. Currently, few campaigners even HOPE to see the abortion law overturned in our lifetimes. But if we have no HOPE, we have nothing to offer those in despair - which is everyone who (as well as every society which) thinks abortion is a solution to a crisis pregnancy.But let our HOPE be built on a sure foundation; trust in God firstly of course, but also a firm commitment to prayer and fasting. Together prayer and fasting cause even demons to flee. Let's show others that we really do believe that Mary will be the route that Jesus will take to end abortion forever, hence our title; Maria Stops Abortion.As one of the original members of the Good Counsel Network here in London, and an Advisor to Pregnant Women in our London Centre for 13 years now, I thank all our praying supporters, workers, volunteers and benefactors for all you do, and for the privilege of working with you for Jesus, through Mary.

Thursday, 22 April 2010

Welcome to Maria Stops Abortion. Please join us for our blog launch on Monday 26th April 2010. Maria Stops Abortion is the blog of The Good Counsel Network. Learn more about our work at http://www.goodcounselnetwork.com/.Clare McCullough

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The Good Counsel Network

Founded in January 1997 The Good Counsel Network continues to serve Mothers and Babies, following the model of how the Blessed Virgin Mary served Christ during His earthly life.
See our website at www.goodcounselnetwork.com